Department of Music

CIM10 - Theme

CIM10 will focus on the relationship between nature and culture in musical behaviour, thinking and sound.

With the influence of evolutionary theory, and the interpenetration of the approaches and methods of the sciences and arts, researchers from many different fields have become interested in how culture and biology shape musical phenomena. To what extent is the music that gets made (its materials and structure) a direct product of physical and biological properties? How is the experience of music governed by biological mechanisms and cultural processes?

The conference aims to bring together representatives of the arts and humanities, the sciences, and musical practice who are involved in research on culture and nature in music. Researchers from all relevant disciplines are invited to contribute theoretical, empirical and computational studies.

The following topic areas illustrate the scope of the conference theme:

• Cognitive and physical constraints shaping musical materials and compositional practices
• Embodied music cognition, entrainment and musical meaning
• Biological and cultural influences on the experience of emotions with music
• Musical universals and musical specializations
• Evolution and biomusicology
• Language and music
• How culture and biology shape the phenomenal experience of musical expectation